1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lithographic projection apparatus and device manufacturing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term xe2x80x9cpatterning devicexe2x80x9d as here employed should be broadly interpreted as referring to device that can be used to endow an incoming radiation beam with a patterned cross-section, corresponding to a pattern that is to be created in a target portion of the substrate. The term xe2x80x9clight valvexe2x80x9d can also be used in this context. Generally, the pattern will correspond to a particular functional layer in a device being created in the target portion, such as an integrated circuit or other device (see below). An example of such a patterning device is a mask. The concept of a mask is well known in lithography, and it includes mask types such as binary, alternating phase-shift, and attenuated phase-shift, as well as various hybrid mask types. Placement of such a mask in the radiation beam causes selective transmission (in the case of a transmissive mask) or reflection (in the case of a reflective mask) of the radiation impinging on the mask, according to the pattern on the mask. In the case of a mask, the support structure will generally be a mask table, which ensures that the mask can be held at a desired position in the incoming radiation beam, and that it can be moved relative to the beam if so desired.
Another example of a patterning device is a programmable mirror array. One example of such an array is a matrix-addressable surface having a viscoelastic control layer and a reflective surface. The basic principle behind such an apparatus is that, for example, addressed areas of the reflective surface reflect incident light as diffracted light, whereas unaddressed areas reflect incident light as undiffracted light. Using an appropriate filter, the undiffracted light can be filtered out of the reflected beam, leaving only the diffracted light behind. In this manner, the beam becomes patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable surface. An alternative embodiment of a programmable mirror array employs a matrix arrangement of tiny mirrors, each of which can be individually tilted about an axis by applying a suitable localized electric field, or by employing piezoelectric actuators. Once again, the mirrors are matrix-addressable, such that addressed mirrors will reflect an incoming radiation beam in a different direction to unaddressed mirrors. In this manner, the reflected beam is patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable mirrors. The required matrix addressing can be performed using suitable electronics. In both of the situations described hereabove, the patterning device can comprise one or more programmable mirror arrays. More information on mirror arrays as here referred to can be seen, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,891 and 5,523,193, and PCT publications WO 98/38597 and WO 98/33096. In the case of a programmable mirror array, the support structure may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.
Another example of a patterning device is a programmable LCD array. An example of such a construction is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,872. As above, the support structure in this case may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.
For purposes of simplicity, the rest of this text may, at certain locations, specifically direct itself to examples involving a mask and mask table. However, the general principles discussed in such instances should be seen in the broader context of the patterning device as hereabove set forth.
Lithographic projection apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (IC""s). In such a case, the patterning device may generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In current apparatus, employing patterning by a mask on a mask table, a distinction can be made between two different types of machine. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion at once. Such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatus, commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the xe2x80x9cscanningxe2x80x9d direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. Since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally less than 1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as here described can be seen, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792.
In a known manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a pattern (e.g. in a mask) is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g. an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure, or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. It is important to ensure that the overlay (juxtaposition) of the various stacked layers is as accurate as possible. For this purpose, a small reference mark is provided at one or more positions on the wafer, thus defining the origin of a coordinate system on the wafer. Using optical and electronic devices in combination with the substrate holder positioning device (referred to hereinafter as xe2x80x9calignment systemxe2x80x9d), this mark can then be relocated each time a new layer has to be juxtaposed on an existing layer, and can be used as an alignment reference. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book xe2x80x9cMicrochip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processingxe2x80x9d, Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0-07-067250-4.
For the sake of simplicity, the projection system may hereinafter be referred to as the xe2x80x9clens.xe2x80x9d However, this term should be broadly interpreted as encompassing various types of projection system, including refractive optics, reflective optics, and catadioptric systems, for example. The radiation system may also include components operating according to any of these design types for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam of radiation, and such components may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a xe2x80x9clensxe2x80x9d. Further, the lithographic apparatus may be of a type having two or more substrate tables (and/or two or more mask tables). In such xe2x80x9cmultiple stagexe2x80x9d devices the additional tables may be used in parallel or preparatory steps may be carried out on one or more tables while one or more other tables are being used for exposures. Dual stage lithographic apparatus are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,441 and WO 98/40791.
In a lithographic apparatus, it is important that illumination of the patterning device is uniform in field and angle distribution and, for illumination modes such as dipole and quadrupole illumination, all poles are equal. To achieve this, an integrator is provided in the illumination system. In a lithographic apparatus using UV or DUV exposure radiation the integrator may take the form of a quartz rod or a so-called fly""s eye lens. A fly""s eye lens is a lens built up of a large number of smaller lenses in an array which creates a correspondingly large number of images of the source in a pupil plane of the illumination system. These images act as a virtual, or secondary, source. However, when using EUV exposure radiation the illumination system must be constructed from mirrors because there is no known material suitable for forming a refractive optical element for EUV radiation. In such an illumination system, a functional equivalent to a fly""s eye lens can be provided using faceted mirrors, for instance as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,195,201 and 6,198,793 and EP 0 939 341 A. These documents describe a first, or field, faceted mirror which focuses a plurality of images, one per facet, on a second, or pupil, faceted mirror which directs the light to appropriately fill the pupil of the projection system. It is known from UV and DUV lithography that imaging of different types of mask patterns can be improved by controlling the illumination settings, e.g. the filling ratio of the pupil of the projection system (commonly referred to as "sgr") or the provision of special illumination modes such as annular, dipole or quadrupole illumination. More information on illumination settings can be obtained from EP 0 949 541 A and EP 1 109 067 A, for example. In an EUV lithographic apparatus with a fly""s eye integrator, these illumination settings can be controlled by selectively blocking certain of the pupil facets. However, because the source position and size on each facet is not exactly known and not stable, it is necessary to block off whole facets at a time, rather than partial facets. Thus, only relatively coarse control of illumination settings is possible. Also, to provide an annular illumination setting it is necessary to obscure the innermost pupil facets and when positioning a masking blade over an inner facet it is difficult to avoid partially obscuring one or more of the outer facets.
It is an aspect of the present invention to provide a lithographic apparatus with an illumination system including reflective optical elements that allows improved control over the illumination settings.
This and other aspects are achieved according to the invention in a lithographic apparatus including a radiation system having reflective optical elements constructed and arranged to supply a projection beam of radiation, the reflective optical elements including a first faceted mirror constructed and arranged to generate a plurality of source images on a second faceted mirror; a support structure constructed and arranged to support a patterning device, the patterning device constructed and arranged to pattern the projection beam according to a desired pattern; a substrate table constructed and arranged to hold a substrate; a projection system constructed and arranged to project the patterned beam onto a target portion of the substrate; and a facet mask constructed and arranged to selectively mask one or more of the facets of one of the first and second faceted mirrors and comprising a partially-opaque masking blade selectively interposable into the projection beam, the partially-opaque masking blade having an arrangement of opaque and transparent areas having a pitch sufficiently large so as to cause negligible diffraction of the projection beam.
By using a partially-opaque masking blade to selectively mask one or more facets, part of the radiation from that facet can be blocked without causing unacceptable inhomogeneity in the illumination of the patterning device, irrespective of the fact that the exact location of the source image on the pupil facet is not known. In this way, intermediate illumination settings, between masking and not masking whole facets or rings of facets, can be provided.
The pitch should be small relative to the source image, so that the proportion of radiation blocked is independent of the source position, but not sufficiently small to cause diffraction of the projection beam. Preferably, for an apparatus using EUV as the exposure radiation, the pitch is in the range of from 1 mm to 500 nm, dependent on the size of the facets and the illuminated area.
The facet mask is preferably further controlled to adjust the proportion of the area of a facet that is obscured, for example by having a plurality of partially-opaque blades selectively interposable into the projection beams. This enables multiple intermediate illumination settings, providing further versatility.
Preferably, the facet mask is arranged proximate the second (pupil) faceted mirror as this provides the most homogeneous illumination of the patterning device.
A second aspect of the present invention provides a lithographic apparatus as specified in the a radiation system having reflective optical elements constructed and arranged to supply a projection beam of radiation, the reflective optical elements including a first faceted mirror constructed and arranged to generate a plurality of source images on a second faceted mirror; a support structure constructed and arranged to support a patterning device, the patterning device constructed and arranged to pattern the projection beam according to a desired pattern; a substrate table constructed and arranged to hold a substrate; a projection system constructed and arranged to project the patterned beam onto a target portion of the substrate; and a facet mask constructed and arranged to selectively mask one or more of the facets of the first faceted mirror.
Since all radiation from one facet of the first (field) faceted mirror is incident on one facet of the second faceted mirror, equivalent illumination control can be achieved by selectively blocking field facets as by blocking pupil facets. Normally however, it would not be contemplated to control illumination settings, such as "sgr", at this position since this is not a pupil plane and so selective obscuration at this position would be expected to cause non-uniformities in the illumination of the patterning device. However, because the field and pupil mirrors are faceted, selective masking of whole field facets can be performed without unacceptable loss of uniformity.
The facets may be arranged so that field facets illuminate pupil facets in different positions, for example facets near the periphery of the field facet mirror may direct radiation to more centrally positioned facets of the pupil facet mirror. Thus annular illumination modes may be set more easily, without partial obscuration of the outer pupil facets and illumination modes that would require masking of inaccessible pupil faces can be set.0
Of course, the facet mask of the second aspect of the present invention may be the same as that of the first aspect and the two aspects may be combined to have selective masking of both field and pupil facets. Thereby, independent control of the inner and outer radii ("sgr"inner and "sgr"outer) of an annular illumination mode can be achieved.
According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a device manufacturing method including providing a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material; providing a projection beam of radiation using a radiation system having reflective optical elements constructed and arranged to supply a projection beam of radiation, the reflective optical elements including a first faceted mirror constructed and arranged to generate a plurality of source images on a second faceted mirror; using a patterning device to endow the projection beam with a pattern in its cross-section; projecting the patterned beam of radiation onto a target portion of the layer of radiation-sensitive material; and selectively masking one or more facets of one of the first and second faceted mirrors by selectively interposing a partially-opaque masking blade into the projection beam, the partially-opaque masking blade having an arrangement of transparent and opaque areas having a pitch sufficiently large so as to cause negligible diffraction of the projection beam.
Although specific reference may be made in this text to the use of the apparatus according to the invention in the manufacture of ICs, it should be explicitly understood that such an apparatus has many other possible applications. For example, it may be employed in the manufacture of integrated optical systems, guidance and detection patterns for magnetic domain memories, liquid-crystal display panels, thin-film magnetic heads, etc. The skilled artisan will appreciate that, in the context of such alternative applications, any use of the terms xe2x80x9creticlexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cwaferxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdiexe2x80x9d in this text should be considered as being replaced by the more general terms xe2x80x9cmaskxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9csubstratexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctarget portionxe2x80x9d, respectively.
In the present document, the terms xe2x80x9cradiationxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cbeamxe2x80x9d are used to encompass all types of electromagnetic radiation, including ultraviolet radiation (e.g. with a wavelength of 365, 248, 193, 157 or 126 nm) and extreme ultra-violet radiation (EUV), e.g. having a wavelength in the range 5-20 nm, especially around 13 nm, as well as particle beams, such as ion beams or electron beams.